Paravision SX-1™ User’s Guide Copyright 1994 Paravision, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 2nd Edition - July 1994 1. INTRODUCTION Thank you for choosing the SX-1 expansion unit for your Amiga® CD32™ and welcome to the world of personal computing. By adding the SX-1 to your CD32 you transform an impressive game machine into a high-powered multimedia computer system. First, make sure that you received everything you need. In this package you should have: • the SX-1 unit • a diskette of set-up software • a warranty registration card • this User’s Guide If your SX-1 does not have a hard drive installed, you should also have a small packet containing four screws and four plastic spacers. If anything is missing, call our shipping department right away. Take the time now to fill out the registration card. This information will allow us to notify you of product updates. Your unit’s serial number is on the white label attached to the back of the SX-1. 2. FEATURES AND SPECIFICATIONS The SX-1 is a complex machine with many options. This section will take each in turn and explain their uses and capabilities. Inside the SX-1 Internal Drive Connector. This is a standard 44 pin connector for 2.5" IDE Hard Disks. A hard disk lets you save programs and data just like a floppy disk—except that it can access them much more quickly than floppies can, and it can store a great deal more. A typical hard disk (60 megabytes) can store almost 70 floppy disks worth of data. Configuration Jumpers. These are used to configure some of your SX-1’s SX-1 User’s Guide 2nd Ed. - Page 1 SX-1 Main Board Disable Switch Parallel Port External IDE Port Drive Mounts Internal IDE Floppy Port Connector Configuration Jumpers Serial Port RGB Port Keyboard Port Clock Battery SIMM Socket Pass-Through Board FMV Connector Audio CD32 Inputs Connector options. They will be detailed later. Battery for the Clock/Calendar Chip. This is a long-life CR2032 replaceable lithium battery that can be found anywhere watch or camera batteries are sold. Many programs need to know when files were last changed. With a clock built into the SX-1, you won’t have to enter the date every time you turn the power on. 72-pin SIMM Memory Connector. This is where you add memory to your system. Computers use RAM as temporary, extremely fast storage for data and programs. The more memory your system has, the more efficient it can become. Increased memory can also let you run more programs at the same time and work with larger data files. Left Side Panel RGB Video Connector. This is a standard DB23 Amiga Video connector. Adding an RGB monitor will give you a much sharper picture than you can get from the CD32’s composite video connector. If you have Commodore’s Full Motion Video card, you can watch CD-I video disks with the clarity of an RGB screen. Back Panel Parallel Connector. This is a standard DB25 Amiga 1200™ parallel port, allowing you to connect most printers easily. Also, some video and audio digitizers can plug in here. Disable Switch. This switch allows you to disable most of the functionality of the SX-1 board just in case you find any CD-based software that does not work. Only the RGB port, memory and clock functions are left active when this switch is set toward the parallel port. Normally you will leave it set toward the External IDE connector. You will have to reset the machine each time you change this switch. DB25 Expansion Cutout. This opening allows you to add a SCSI interface card and neatly mount the connector on the back panel. External Hard Disk Connector. This DB37 connector lets you attach an external IDE hard disk. This would be used when you have two hard disks that you want to use, or when your hard disk is too large to fit inside the SX-1. Right Side Panel Audio Input. This 6-pin Mini-DIN connector allows a third audio stream to be mixed with the Amiga’s audio output and the CD player’s audio output. This is not a digitizer—the Amiga can’t do anything with the signal that gets fed in except send it out the normal CD32 audio connectors. With the proper cables, you can attach a microphone and sing along with your music CD’s. AT-101 Keyboard Connector. This connector allows you to plug in an inexpensive “AT-101”-style keyboard as used on IBM® AT™ computers. SX-1 User’s Guide 2nd Ed. - Page 3 9 pin IBM-compatible RS232 Serial Port. This port allows you to connect to modems (by which your computer can share data with other computers through the telephone lines), some printers, light pens, and other local computers (through a special cable called a null-modem). Amiga Floppy Drive Connector. This connector allows you to attach an Amiga floppy disk drive to the CD32. Both normal Amiga drives (which store about 880 kilobytes of information) and the new Amiga high-density drives (which store about 1.76 megabytes of information) are supported. Pass-Through Board Full Morion Video Connector. This is where you would attach Commodore’s Full Motion Video (FMV) card. CD32 Connector. This is where the SX-1 attaches to the CD32. 3. CONFIGURATION AND INSTALLATION (1) Read through the entire installation procedure before even picking up a screwdriver. If you have any questions, contact your dealer or Paravision’s Technical Support department. The standard power supply that comes with the CD32 is very weak. It has enough power to run the CD32 itself and very little else. If you are using any one of: one floppy drive, one hard disk, or Commodore’s Full Motion Video module, you should have enough power to run reliably. If you are using more than one, though, you probably will need a replacement power supply. Consult your dealer for the availability of higher wattage power supplies. Opening the SX-1 (2) If you do not need to open the SX-1’s case, skip to step 21: Connecting To The CD32. To open the SX-1’s case you will need a #1 Phillips screwdriver. Locate or create a static-free workspace. Static electricity can seriously damage any electronic device, and the CD32 and SX-1 are no exceptions. If you have an electronics store nearby, the salespeople can supply you with and show you how to use a grounding wrist strap. (3) Locate the 4 screws (one on each corner) holding the SX-1’s top cover and remove them. Lift the top cover straight up to remove it. Hard Disk Installation (4) If you are not installing an internal IDE hard disk, skip to step 16: Installing Memory. SX-1 User’s Guide 2nd Ed. - Page 4 To install an internal hard disk you will need a 5 millimeter nutdriver, a #1 Phillips screwdriver, a 44-conductor IDE cable approximately two inches long, a 2 1/2" hard disk, and a copy of the AmigaDOS 3.x release disks, including the Install disk. The hard disk attaches upside-down, underneath the SX-1’s main board. Because of this, you must remove the 10 hex-head screws from around the SX-1’s external connectors in order to get the board out. (5) Lifting the front (pass-through card) edge first, remove the SX-1’s main board from the case. At this point, the silver shield around one or both of the rear connectors may come loose. Don’t worry: just set it/them aside. (6) Open the screw/spacer packet and insert one of the screws through one of the hard drive mounting holes in the SX-1 board such that the head of the screw is on the top side of the board. (7) Place one of the plastic spacers over the end of the screw and line up one of the mounting holes on the bottom of the drive with this screw. Make sure that the drive’s connector is facing the IDE connector on the top of the SX-1 board. Start the screw, but don’t tighten it down yet. This step is rather awkward—you might need someone to help hold things for you while you get the screw going. (8) Repeat steps 6 and 7 for each of the other three screws. Getting the spacers in between the drive and board can be tricky after the first one, so be patient. A small needle-nosed plier can sometimes help to get everything lined up. (9) When all four screws are started into the drive, tighten them all down. (10) Look between the drive and board very carefully. If any of the pins on the back of the SX-1 touch any part of the hard disk, stop here. Don’t plug the board into the CD32 just to see if it will work—serious damage to the disk, SX-1, or CD32 is possible (maybe all three). Those pins will have to be removed before it will be safe to use that hard disk on the SX-1. (11) Connect one end of your drive cable to the SX-1’s IDE connector. If the cable has a stripe down one edge, connect it so that this edge is toward the back of the SX-1: over the pin marked “1” on the board. (12) Connect the other end of the cable to the drive.